May 2026
Hawaii benchmark
Claude (Sonnet) · 50 queries · 5 verticals
//.proprietary_instrument
Reef Citation Index™
Our proprietary Hawaii AI-citation visibility instrument. Powered by The Reef Method.
Open
CC BY 4.0
Engine-agnostic · run on request
Reef Citation Index™ measures which Hawaii businesses get cited when a real buyer asks an AI assistant for a recommendation. Our published Hawaii benchmark measured Anthropic Claude; the framework itself is engine-agnostic, and we run it across the assistants your buyers actually use. Open methodology. Published under Creative Commons.
reference_at_a_glance
Claude (Sonnet)
Engine measured
Engine-agnostic
Methodology
5
Verticals covered
50 queries
Query universe
4
Methodology stages
4
Validation registries
CC BY 4.0
License
May 2026
First published
Any Hawaii category
Applied on request
//.what_it_measures
One Hawaii-specific instrument. Five verticals. Open methodology.
Reef Citation Index™ is the productized methodology behind our Hawaii AI-search research. The published benchmark captured the citation behavior of one assistant — Anthropic Claude — across five Hawaii verticals. The framework is engine-agnostic: we point it at whichever assistants a category’s buyers actually use.
ENGINE_COVERAGE
| Claude | Anthropic · Measured · 2026 benchmark |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | OpenAI · Supported by the methodology · run on request |
| Perplexity | Perplexity AI · Supported by the methodology · run on request |
| Gemini | Google · Supported by the methodology · run on request |
| Copilot | Microsoft · Supported by the methodology · run on request |
VERTICALS_COVERED
| Hospitality | Hotels, restaurants, tour operators |
|---|---|
| Real Estate | Brokerages, agents |
| Healthcare | Hospital systems, specialty practices, primary care |
| Weddings | Venues, planners, vendors |
| Home Services | Contractors, landscaping, pest control, cleaning |
MEASUREMENT_PIPELINE
Query Universe
A standardized set of recommendation prompts representative of how Hawaii buyers actually ask AI assistants for help.
Engine Response Capture
Live runs against each AI assistant in the run’s scope; full text responses captured and archived for reproducibility.
Entity Validation
Cross-reference cited businesses against verified registries — DCCA, TripAdvisor, Honolulu REALTORS, hospital and health-system websites.
Citation Counting
Tally citations per business per query per engine; build per-vertical leaderboards and category winners.
//.research_archive
A dated study. Archived responses. Reproducible by anyone.
The benchmark is a timestamped research snapshot, not an opinion piece. Every engine response captured during the run is retained, the prompts are published in full, and the engine version is named — so any researcher can re-run the framework and check the work. That is the standard the methodology holds itself to, and the standard we apply when we run it for a client’s category.
//.what_it_powers
Three places Reef Citation Index™ already runs.
The instrument is the engine behind the published Index, the research case study, and the Reef Method Citations layer. Every Hawaii AI-search artifact we publish runs on this measurement system.
THE_DATA
Hawaii AI Search Visibility Index
The public, CC BY 4.0 dataset and open methodology framework. Published May 2026; the methodology applies to any Hawaii category on request.
Read the benchmarkTHE_PROOF
Hawaii AI Citation Analysis
Case Study #003. Reframes the benchmark data into the hospitality vertical deep-dive — winners by category, citation patterns, what separates the cited from the invisible.
See the analysisTHE_METHOD
Reef Method · Citations Layer
Layer 3 of The Reef Method — the GEO + AEO visibility layer. Reef Citation Index™ is the measurement instrument that quantifies it.
Read the layer//.for_your_business
Track your business’s AI search visibility.
The Reef Citation Index isn’t only a published methodology — it’s the measurement instrument we run for Hawaii businesses that want to know which AI assistants cite them, where competitors are winning, and what’s moving their share of model. We scope each run to the assistants your buyers actually use — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot. If you’d rather see your own category’s citation data than read ours, that’s exactly what the instrument is for — see how it backs real client work in our portfolio.
Request your visibility snapshotOpen methodology. Reproducible measurement.
Reef Citation Index™ is built on a published, CC BY 4.0-licensed methodology — not a black-box agency tool. The query universe, engine-response protocol, entity-validation registry, and citation-counting rubric live in the open framework alongside the published benchmark.
Why open? Because the value isn’t the methodology itself — it’s the application of it to Hawaii’s businesses, by people who know Hawaii’s businesses. Mainland agencies can read the framework. They can’t run it for Hawaii.
Every claim, leaderboard, and pattern published under Reef Citation Index™ is independently reproducible from the framework. The dataset is timestamped, the engine version is named, the prompts are listed in full.
- Query universe published — full text of all 50 prompts in the published dataset
- Engine version named — Anthropic Claude Sonnet, training-data baseline, no web augmentation
- Validation registries cited — DCCA, TripAdvisor, Honolulu REALTORS, hospital and health-system websites
- License declared — Creative Commons BY 4.0, attribution required
- Byline attributed — Rodrigo Diniz, Digital Marketing Specialist & Founder
- Schema published — Dataset + Article schema with explicit temporal and spatial coverage
//.editorial_credits
Named bylines. Open license.
Reef Citation Index™ is a published research instrument with attributed authorship and a permissive reuse license. No anonymous research, no agency-collective bylines, no “data sourced from undisclosed methodology.”
LEAD_RESEARCHER
Rodrigo Diniz
Digital Marketing Specialist & Founder
Author of the open methodology framework. In digital marketing since 2012; lead architect of The Reef Method.
OPERATIONS_LEAD
Taylor Asao
Head of Business Development & Operations
Operational lead on the benchmark run — query collection, response capture protocol, registry cross-validation.
License: Creative Commons BY 4.0
First published: May 2026
Trademark: Reef Citation Index™
//.faq
Reef Citation Index™ — Frequently Asked Questions
Short, citation-friendly answers to the questions researchers, journalists, and Hawaii businesses ask about how the Index works, what it covers, and how to apply the methodology.
What is Reef Citation Index™?
Reef Citation Index™ is Nekko Digital’s proprietary AI-citation visibility instrument for Hawaii businesses. It pairs an open, CC BY 4.0 methodology with a published Hawaii benchmark study measuring which businesses Anthropic Claude cites when buyers ask for recommendations. Nekko applies the framework on request to a client’s own category.
Which AI engine did the published benchmark measure, and can the methodology be run on others?
The published benchmark measured one engine: Anthropic Claude (Sonnet), run on a training-data baseline with no web augmentation. The methodology itself is engine-agnostic — we run it against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Copilot on request, scoped to the assistants a client’s buyers actually use.
Which Hawaii business verticals does Reef Citation Index cover?
Five verticals: hospitality (hotels, restaurants, tour operators), real estate (brokerages, agents), healthcare (hospital systems, specialty practices, primary care), weddings (venues, planners, vendors), and home services (contractors, landscaping, pest control, cleaning).
What is the methodology behind Reef Citation Index?
Four stages. (1) Query Universe: a standardized set of recommendation prompts representative of how Hawaii buyers ask AI assistants for help. (2) Engine Response Capture: live runs against the AI assistant with full text responses archived for reproducibility. (3) Entity Validation: cited businesses cross-referenced against verified registries — Hawaii Business Express / DCCA, TripAdvisor verified properties, Honolulu Board of REALTORS, and hospital and health-system websites. (4) Citation Counting: tallied per business per query per engine to build per-vertical leaderboards. The full methodology is published under Creative Commons BY 4.0.
Where is the published dataset?
The benchmark is published on the Hawaii AI Search Visibility Index page. That page carries the full 50-query universe, the scoring rubric, the results, a stated limitations section, and the open methodology framework — and it holds the canonical Dataset schema for the study.
What is the Reef Citation Index license?
Creative Commons BY 4.0. The methodology and the published dataset are freely reusable with attribution. Researchers, journalists, and other agencies can apply the framework to produce their own datasets. The trademark Reef Citation Index™ refers specifically to Nekko Digital’s application of the framework.
Who runs Reef Citation Index?
Lead researcher and author of the open methodology framework: Rodrigo Diniz, Digital Marketing Specialist & Founder at Nekko Digital. Operations lead on the benchmark run — query collection, response capture protocol, registry cross-validation: Taylor Asao, Head of Business Development & Operations. Reach us through the contact page.
//.engagement
Want Reef Citation Index™ applied to your category?
The published benchmark covers five broad Hawaii verticals. Want the methodology applied to your specific category, region, or competitive set? Send us a brief — we’ll reply within one business day with how we’d scope the methodology for your category.
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